Summary

Set during the confusion following the terrorist attacks of September 11, the story begins when a history teacher asks his students to write a report based on an interview with someone who has a different viewpoint from their own. As they fan out into the community and encounter people of diverse backgrounds, opinions, and prejudices, the teens quickly realize that the story cannot be reduced to simple dichotomies of good versus evil or us versus them.

Author Notes

Oliver Chin has dedicated his career to publishing and media communications. Graduating magna cum laude from Harvard University with a degree in Social Studies, he concentrated in Popular Culture and Mass Media. Formerly the editorial cartoonist for The Harvard Crimson , he has drawn for numerous publications such as Asian Week , Consumer Action , Street Sheet , New Mission News , and the San Francisco Call . Called a "comics expert" by the San Jose Mercury News , he is a columnist for Comics and Games Retailer and Comics Buyer's Guide . He lives with his wife and son in San Francisco.

Publisher's Weekly Review

Half comic, half textbook, and wholly readable, Chin's 9 of 1 presents a kaleidoscopic vision of the United States post September 11th, a nation made up of countless immigrants encountering each other every day in the most ordinary ways. In this nicely layered tale, nine eleventh-grade classmates of diverse backgrounds are instructed to go out and interview members of their community about their own history and world views. They happen to live in Fremont, California, a town whose proximity to Silicon Valley makes it a magnet for immigrants. Thus, we meet Maylene Abellar, a Filipino-American, who, in turn, interviews Richard Denton, an Italian-American who believes that the U.S. must act as the world's police force. British Celeste Quincy writes about Usha Pashdar, an Afghani woman fighting from her base in California for women's rights in her homeland. Hector Gonzalez talks to elderly Caleb Lipman, a former Israeli soldier, and Valerie Silverberg talks to Ahmed Mustafa, an Egyptian emitter. Chin's formula is simple, but the juxtapositions and personal histories he presents make for a complex work. Graphically, the pages are reminiscent of a classic textbook turned on its ear: strong black-and-white portraiture is tossed in with full-page landscapes, diagrams, maps, and headlines. While an appendix of reading questions makes it clear that the book is partly intended for classroom use, the casual reader will enjoy it as an unintimidating primer on world cultures and politics today. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Library Journal Review

In this educational work, Chin explores a variety of reactions to the 9/11 attacks through the device of a group of fictional high school students assigned to interview people, whose backgrounds are different from their own, about the attacks and their aftermath. A businessman talks about the friend he lost in the World Trade Center, an Afghan woman speaks of repression under the Taliban, a Japanese American remembers internment during World War II, a Russian ex-soldier remembers the disastrous campaign he fought in Afghanistan, and so on. With a set of discussion questions for each chapter, this book is designed for use in schools, and Chin provides students with a wide variety of viewpoints on world affairs, giving some important historical background. Chin's use of the comics form can be awkward, with the narration shifting unpredictably from one character to another early on, and with some difficult-to-follow page layouts. And the writing could be sharper. But this is a commendable effort: by putting these views in the mouths of ordinary people, Chin brings large issues into personal focus and provides a useful teaching tool. Recommended for schools and for young adult collections. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

SD_ILS:1247347

9781583940723

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